MoMA To Host Tower Made Of Corn And Mushroom Bricks [Pics]

Chosen by MoMA and MoMA PS1, David Benjamin’s design firm The Living is the winner of this year’s Young Architects Program, a competition that calls for a temporary outdoor installation in the courtyard space.

The winning proposal, entitled Hy-Fi, is for an organic structure that will be built with 100% biodegradable blocks. Well-versed in the biomimetic approach to architecture, Benjamin combined biological technologies with cutting-edge computation and engineering skills to produce a set of bricks that comes from the earth and generates no waste or carbon emissions. The organic bricks were developed in conjunction with bio-material specialist Ecovative, and are to be used for the lower portions of the structure.

For the upper extremities, hollow reflective bricks produced through the custom-forming of a new daylight mirror film, invented by 3M, will be stacked to create a gravity-defying effect, especially with light bounced down on the towers and the ground.